Healthcare diagnostics labs employ a variety of diagnostic instruments such as those for testing and analyzing specimens or samples. These diagnostic instruments often track a chain of custody throughout a process of testing samples and releasing results. To track the chain of custody, known systems use a specific user login at each step in the testing process. These systems require a user (e.g., a lab technician) to log into the system by entering a username and password via a keyboard.
Lab technicians, who work in healthcare diagnostics labs, typically wear/use safety gloves, goggles, lab coats, gas masks and other personal protection equipment (PPE) when operating the diagnostic instruments. Many of the samples and reagents used in the healthcare diagnostics labs contain biohazardous material and/or other hazardous substances. Lab technicians may be reluctant to use (and incapable of typing on) a keyboard when wearing gloves, especially when the lab technician has been handling hazardous materials. Additionally, during testing operations, many lab technicians carry samples, reagents, notebooks or other instruments and, as a result, are reluctant or incapable of typing on a keyboard with two hands. Thus, some lab technicians find compliance with login requirements to be cumbersome. Therefore, users often share a common user account (i.e., only one user logs into the system initially and others use the same user account) or do not log into the system, which creates difficulties when tracking the chain of custody.